When Gregg Berhalter was named the Crew’s coach and sporting director, he made re-signing
leading scorer Dominic Oduro a priority on a lengthy to-do list. Yesterday, the club announced that
the attacker signed for the 2014 season.

Team investor-operator Anthony Precourt called the signing “a huge priority for us” on Twitter,
a viewpoint Berhalter was quick to echo.

“(It) was a priority to get him re-signed,” Berhalter said. “Dom was a little bit different case
because he had an exceptional year and he scored a lot of goals and there were offers for him
overseas. There were a whole bunch of other things to work against.”

Oduro is in his native Ghana and unavailable for comment, but he posted the following message on
Twitter: “with pride and great joy, i am proud to say i will be back with the crew next season and
hopefully more years to come.”

In addition to entertaining interest from several countries, Oduro nearly came to terms with a
club in Greece before returning to the Crew. After being acquired during the 2013 preseason for
Dilly Duka and the rights to Robbie Rogers, Oduro responded with a career- and team-best 13
goals.

According to figures released by the players’ union, Oduro’s 2013 guaranteed compensation of
$122,015 was 11th-highest on the Crew roster. Figures were not released, but Oduro is thought to
have earned a significant raise — but not as much as if he had gone elsewhere.

“I would say that it’s mostly a credit to how much Dom wants to be in Columbus that he stayed,”
Berhalter said. “I think he could have probably gotten more money somewhere else, but he loves
Columbus.”

Berhalter said he expects to see Oduro play either forward or on the right side of the midfield
as he did last season.

The signing puts the Crew roster at 23 players. Goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum remains out of
contract and three players whose 2014 options were declined for financial reasons — Jairo Arrieta,
Gláuber and Danny O’Rourke — also remain possibilities to return.

Berhalter said the Crew should have an update on Gruenebaum and “a couple of other things” in
the next few days. If he does not come to terms with the Crew first, O’Rourke is eligible to be
taken on Thursday in the first phase of the MLS re-entry draft.